Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori who is currently serving 25 years in prison. REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil

The Peruvian government has announced it will provide free health services and create a national registry for those affected by forced sterilization.

In the 1990s as a part of a state program under former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, around 350,000 women and 25,000 men were sterilized — many without their full knowledge or consent — in an ill-conceived effort to eliminate poverty in the South American country.

“I didn’t sign anything. They tricked us. Nurses told us we had to go to the clinic where we would be given a free health check-up, medicine and food. They said it was for our own good and well-being,” victim Esperanza Huayama told Reuters. She was three-months pregnant at the time. Her child was stillborn weeks after the surgery.